ATL Courtship Connection: Third Time's the Charm?

We know a lot about law here at ATL, and maybe we know a little about love too. We’ve sent a handful of New York legal types out on dates as part of ATL Courtship Connection, our amateur stab at matchmaking. We’ve gotten three reports back so far.

Elie’s matchmaking attempt fell flat. Lat’s set-up showed promise. Now I bring you the results of my handiwork with Cupid’s bow and arrow. Since a Covington colleague and Duke classmate that I introduced are now married (and about to give birth to their first child), I can claim some archery expertise.

I matched two 30+ attorneys because they both named My Cousin Vinny as their favorite legal character. If a shared appreciation of Joe Pesci’s courtroom tuxedo doesn’t lead to true love, I don’t know what will. I sent them to one of my favorite East Village bars, Scratcher, which I thought would have a relaxed, romantic vibe. I was wrong about that, but perhaps right about these two getting along.

Here’s the male take from a “mid-level associate, refugee from the NYC boutique firms, now working at a non-profit and developing an allergic reaction to dress pants”:

So you would think that finding someone you never met in a bar without so much as a first name might be a problem. Especially when that bar is packed with drunken college types on St. Patrick’s Day. As it turned out, it took me all of two seconds to spot the one lawyer in the place, BlackBerry in her one hand, Redweld in the other.

Our college years long behind us, we decided to find a place where we could have a conversation, and perhaps get some real beer instead of that green swill.

So how did it go from there?

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He says:

After we got past the inevitable griping about NYC firm life, we discovered we had a fair amount in common. We must have chatted for hours, because we ended up closing the restaurant down. I walked her to her stop, and got her number, hopeful that we might meet again.

Thanks, Kash, for a surprisingly fun evening!

The feeling seems to be mutual. The female in the Courtship duo describes herself as a “somewhat newly-minted attorney working in midlaw, sometimes even enjoying it,” who “likes weekend brunch, meeting new people, billing time, and the idea of leaving her love life in the hands of fate and the tender mercies of ATL.” Here’s her take on the date:

We were scheduled to meet up at Scratcher’s Pub, near Astor Place, which has no sign out front. It’s a cool place, but was a tad crowded on St. Patrick’s Day. I arrived slightly early and proceeded to consult my BlackBerry. I didn’t see anyone fitting the description of the person I was there to meet, so I waited. Eventually, someone came up and greeted me, somewhat fitting the description. The description Kash forwarded stated that he would be wearing a green sweater and black metal glasses. I had never really thought of “green” as being a subjective term before. Apparently so.

After the introductions, because the pub was rather busy, we walked around for a bit looking for a different place. We ended up at Belcourt, which has sort of a cute French bistro feel. We ordered Belgian beer and chatted. It turned out that we had a fair amount in common. We laughed, discussed Bret Easton Ellis, and got into a bit of a debate over the word “ostensible.” After a while we decided to call it a night, shared info, and parted company. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. Will we see each other again? We might.

I’m not going to start bragging until these two have made it to date six, i.e., the point of serious interest, but I have subjected my co-editors to some minor gloating as to who is the best matchmaker.

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More Courtship Connections are on their way. We’re happy to see sickeningly saccharine things go well, though we do hope for a few epically disastrous first dates. This is dating in New York after all.

Earlier: The ATL Courtship Connection series